Obsessed with protecting America’s purity of essence against international communist conspiracy, General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) shuts down air force communications and orders a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, which, in turn, has built a doomsday machine which will detonate automatically if they are attacked. World annihilation may not seem particularly comic, but Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War satire hilariously exposes the absurdity of sin, as US and Soviet officials, led by Peter Sellers in three brilliant performances, attempt mass murder for the sake of peace.
—Evan Cogswell